Gas & Electricity

[marco]

Our next major purchase for the house looks like it will be an eco-friendly dual fuel wood burner. These are supposed to save a bit on gas bills. Does anybody have any experience of this? Of course, with installation costs, etc, the initial outlay will be high but our current gas fire is shit anyway and needs replacing as it doesn't seem to give off nearly enough heat when it's on.

its the only thing thats going on in my house this winter, yes its a 2nd option heating system or to run along side a gas central heating system but we can make do without the gas, leave the living room door open and it heats upstairs to,not brilliant but just about ok, consumes around 3 good logs per 90 minutes, im going to let it tick over all day on smokless coal then load logs at night,,no question about it if you have a house with a fireplace then get your old fire out and open it up,have a smoke test done and your all set, ive just converted gravity fed hot water from it to the bathroom so in effect all showers are now free

 

[M18CTID]

All depends on if you can source free wood or very cheap. People burn all sorts of shit in then which I don't recommend.

Can become quite expensive if buying from supermarkets etc, but compared to gas I don't know which works out best.

Yeah, I think there are strict regulations on what type of wood can be used. Theoretically, I think they're meant to be cheaper and you'd have thought with massively rising gas prices that they should be even more value for money but it wouldn't surprise me if the wood prices get ramped up as well!

Either way, it's a job in the house that still needs doing anyway and I suppose if it doesn't turn out to be cost effective after all then with it being dual fuel I can always switch back to gas.

 

[M18CTID]

its the only thing thats going on in my house this winter, yes its a 2nd option heating system or to run along side a gas central heating system but we can make do without the gas, leave the living room door open and it heats upstairs to,not brilliant but just about ok, consumes around 3 good logs per 90 minutes, im going to let it tick over all day on smokless coal then load logs at night,,no question about it if you have a house with a fireplace then get your old fire out and open it up,have a smoke test done and your all set, ive just converted gravity fed hot water from it to the bathroom so in effect all showers are now free

Nice one mate - cheers for the info

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

All depends on if you can source free wood or very cheap. People burn all sorts of shit in then which I don't recommend.

Can become quite expensive if buying from supermarkets etc, but compared to gas I don't know which works out best.

This. Dont burn shit wood, it doesn't get hot and fucks up the stove and flue which is too expensive to ruin. Kiln dried wood is all you should really use in them and it isn't cheap, and you will be amazed how quickly you go through it. You can't just rely on a wood burner for heating really, not as a cheap alternative anyway, but it will help obviously

 

[west didsblue]

At the moment there is no affordable energy rate, it's completely impossible because gas is imported at market rates and the market rate for gas has gone up by 400% in just 12 months. The only option for the government is to subsidise the price of this gas, that's it, there's no other choice and it'll probably cost the earth which is why they won't do it.

This isn't due to profiteering either, it's because a considerable chunk of the world's gas comes from Russia and the Russian market stall for gas has now closed. The rest of the world now must fight for supply which is why there is a real threat that the lights could go out over the winter let alone whether we need to worry about prices.

This is happening specifically here because the UK generates 50% of its electricity from burning gas which is why France is enjoying affordable rates in comparison.... 80% of their electricity comes from nuclear and you don't need to import any gas to run a nuclear powerplant.

Around 50% of our gas is produced domestically and another 45% is imported from non-Russian sources so our exposure to Russian gas is very limited. Whilst the government can't do much about the price of imported gas which will be at the market rate, they could certainly do something about the gas produced domestically by one of several means. For example they could use the extra tax raked in from the producers, apply a windfall tax or if the companies don't play ball threaten to nationalise them. There will be pros and cons for each possible solution but the government seems to be of the mind that they can get away with just throwing a few scraps at the consumers and largely leave the producers alone. We would be in a much worse position if we imported nearly all our gas like quite a few other countries, however from a consumer perspective we might as well be in that position because the positives of having our own source for 50% of our gas appears to benefit the producers and government only.

 

[Mossy1973]

Major problem with the UK is its lack of investment in the power infrastructure. Power plants coming to there end of life with no new solutions. Wind farms lol have a look at how much the tax payers are subsidising these companies. There is a massive gas and oil field up near the Shetlands which the government said cant be used. Shell said ok and pulled there investment. This would of seen us through until nuclear plants had been built. Gas is actually more efficient than electricity for heating and cooking. We only get 5% of our gas from Russia. We binned storage facilities for gas years ago.
All what's happened recently is we have cut our nose of to spite our face.

 

[Scottyboi]

its the only thing thats going on in my house this winter, yes its a 2nd option heating system or to run along side a gas central heating system but we can make do without the gas, leave the living room door open and it heats upstairs to,not brilliant but just about ok, consumes around 3 good logs per 90 minutes, im going to let it tick over all day on smokless coal then load logs at night,,no question about it if you have a house with a fireplace then get your old fire out and open it up,have a smoke test done and your all set, ive just converted gravity fed hot water from it to the bathroom so in effect all showers are now free

How much does the coal and logs cost you per day Marco?

 

[metalblue]

Our next major purchase for the house looks like it will be an eco-friendly dual fuel wood burner. These are supposed to save a bit on gas bills. Does anybody have any experience of this? Of course, with installation costs, etc, the initial outlay will be high but our current gas fire is shit anyway and needs replacing as it doesn't seem to give off nearly enough heat when it's on.

Get yourself a wood burner fan mate. About £20-£30 and they just sit on top of it and blow the heat into the room. Makes a huge difference - like night and day difference

 

[shemnel]

what about getting heat from the log burner around the house a bit more? i've seen you can get grills installed in the ceiling (floor upstairs) which seems quite dramatic but i can see the sense

 

[RandomJ]

Let’s just all use the MP’s second and third homes. We can take an hour each to enjoy their heating they claim expenses on.